Strategy Framework 2017-30

Our overarching strategic framework and theory of change for the years 2017 to 2030.

Our strategic framework provides an overview of our role and purpose, the context we work in, our goals, and how we will achieve them. It will run from 2017-2030.

Why 2030? Because it’s the target date for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Seventeen SDGs were adopted in September 2015, aiming to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.

We are dedicated to achieving SDG 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all.

Achieving this is possible but profoundly challenging. As a global community we have made huge progress so far. However, this needs to accelerate. IRC has contributed to achieving a profound shift in sector thinking: from delivering WASH hardware to delivering WASH services that last. The challenge that the SDG's set us, is to provide these services, sustainable, to every man, woman and child in the world. To achieve this will require wholesale change in how WASH services are conceived of and delivered globally.

Acting at district, national and global levels

Our theory of change tells us what we must do to achieve this change at three levels: district, national and global. The next five years will be critical.

We’ll adopt partner districts in our focus countries, working with them to achieve universal access. In doing so we’ll show how this can be done. We’ll make sure that lessons learned are brought to national and global attention.

We will act as a ‘change hub’: creating focus, and promoting collective action to achieve a shared vision. We’ll link what happens at national level with evidence and experiences from districts, making sure this leads to change nationally in policy and interventions, and locally in adopting ‘what works’.

Our strategic framework supports the Agenda for Change, a set of guiding principles and actions for achieving universal WASH services by 2030. We launched this in May 2015, in partnership with WaterAid, Water for People, Osprey Foundation and Aguaconsult.

The clock has been ticking since 2015. We have 15 years to make history, and in our view, five years to make change.